America is being destroyed by domestic hate, National Urban League report says

By Justin Gamble, CNN

The National Urban League unveiled on Tuesday its annual report on the state of Black America, saying the nation is under attack from hate and extremism within the country.

The report hopes to raise “the alarm around the explosive growth of far-right and domestic extremism and the threat it poses to our communities, our families, and our nation,” the organization said in the report’s executive summary.

The report outlines areas where the organization believes inequities exist, including employment, education, health, housing, criminal justice and civic participation.

Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the organization, said during the report’s unveiling ceremony in Atlanta, that it’s time to fight back.

“There’s a fire blazing in the United States of America,” Morial said. “That fire is burning through democracy.”

He told attendees that it’s time to stand up to hate and manipulation.

“It is our job, Urban League, as friends and allies to fight to resist and to battle against this,” Morial said.

Hateful rhetoric and extremist ideologies have reached the military, law enforcement, politics and classrooms across the country, according to the report.

On Tuesday, Morial said there have been several efforts by states to limit the teaching of contributions by Black people in America, and those efforts seek to “erase a truthful, albeit sometimes painful recitation of the role that race (has) played.”

Morial addressed Florida officials’ decision this year to block a proposed new Advanced Placement class on African American studies. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in January said the state was rejecting the proposal because it would impose a “political agenda,” with a preliminary framework that included the study of “queer theory” and political movements that advocate for “abolishing prisons.”

The rejection of the class proposal amounted to “disrespecting the important legacy and history of our people,” Morial said.

Efforts to limit the teaching of race in schools, Morial said, are not led by parents.

“We will not be fooled. We will not be tricked. It is not a parent’s rights movement. It is a hate movement in fancy clothing,” Morial said.

Americans can extinguish the “flames of the fires” of hatred, extremism and domestic terrorism that are “burning through democracy,” Morial said.

The organization has prepared its “State of Black America” report for 47 years.

This year’s edition was published in partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center and UCLA’s Law Anti-CRT legislative tracking project. The report includes more than a dozen essays written by lawmakers, scholars and civil rights advocates.

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